The last decent domestic run
enjoyed by the toon army was in 2004 -05 season under the then manager Graeme
Souness. That year united reached the semifinal only to lose 4-1 to the runners
up Manchester United. Since then it has been a dismal run of results in the
cups for the team.
In the last few years the results
have become even more unbearable; in fact we have compiled the list of results
for the last four years that have led to the magpies exit.
Year
|
FA Cup (score)
|
Carling cup (Score)
|
2008 -09
|
Hull city 1-0 Replay
|
Tottenham Hotspurs 2-1
|
2009 -10
|
West Bromwich Albion 4-2
|
Peterborough United 2-0
|
2010 -2011
|
Stevenage Borough 3-1
|
Arsenal 4-0
|
2011-12
|
Brighton and Hove Albion 1-0
|
Blackburn Rovers 4-3 (AET)
|
You can see from the list that none
of the matches were really that hard, even the matches against the north London
clubs were at St. James’s park where every team
knows you will always get a game. It has been too long to be considered
just random.
Now one cannot change what has
happened but one must learn from what has happened. Reasons for such poor results
could be either purely down to luck or the players are not able to handle the
pressure of a knock out game. One understands players representing so called
smaller clubs would be up for the games but you expect players representing
Newcastle to weather the storm and come out on top.
A cup is really cherished by many
supporters and quite frankly represents the best chance for NUFC to win
anything of note since 1969. This season Newcastle are expected to participate
in three different cups i.e. The FA cup, the Capital one cup and the Europa
league (different format to a knock out).
I sincerely hope united set their
priorities right and do give all or a combination of cups a good go, of course
not compromising on the league. Hopefully teams are picked accordingly and are
capable of beating what is put in front of them. Just don’t thrust youngsters
in the name of giving them experience.
What I am also hoping for is a
favorable draw, so that we can take advantage and make it through all the way.
Nothing wrong in that, is there? Fingers crossed.
I got an intuition ;)
Comments welcome
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